The thriller sequence of the movie starts with the production company, which introduces slowly the movies producers. We see the logo of the companies, but with sound at the same time, the music at the start is slow, negative and builds in tension gradually, this gives the audience the “horror” feeling already. The production companies are introduced on screen for 31 seconds, this get the user waiting eagerly to see what the movie is.
After this the screen is blank (completely black), for around 2-3 seconds, which forces the viewer to stay concentrating as nothing has yet happened. The screen is black; this shows negativity, a grim atmosphere, and lets the viewer thinks of what he or she may be expecting to see. The first proper scene that we see is a quick snap of an empty, dark field; this builds suspense for the viewer, the sequence begins with a lot of fast editing to capture the audiences’ attention. The fact that we do not see any faces of characters till 1 minute 47 seconds, this creates even more suspense and lets the viewer packed full of excitement as we see the sequence packed full of action, with hands, footsteps, and screams but yet no character is seen fully. Using Mise-en-sene we see quick shots of children running around the field screaming in fear, a bulb being put on, a “scary” setting, glass breaking and whispering, these all are conventions of a horror movie, therefore instantly the audience relates it to the horror genre and knows what to expect. This gets the audience filled with excitement as they are expecting to see something, especially after the super natural being appears and scares the girl. We see an extreme close up of a girl focusing on her eyes and tears, this shows the great level of emotion and fear in the girls eyes, but we still do not see her full face. This leaves the audience waiting to see who it is and therefore continue to watch the movie in great attention.
Conventions of a horror movie shown in the thriller;
However by 1 minute 32 seconds a complete change of mood in the sequence occurs. The setting is brighter, more natural and we see the “real world”. We get introduced to the main character; “Jessica Alba”, even the music in the background is smother and much more relaxed.
The credits appear at the same time as when we see the character walking, so that we would identify who the main character is, and who else will be acting in the movie. The credits also appear depending on what is on screen, for example in the scene where she is playing the violin, the credits would say “music by ...” The credits are written in bold, white, Arial font, so it looks simple and yet easy to see in the dark background. The surprising thing is that the title of the movie does not appear in the thrillers sequence, which usually does not happen in movie sequences.
In the thriller sequence the main character introduces herself, rather than having the audience to try an understand her character. She speaks about herself, but not directly so that the audience hear her but she is not moving her mouth, as if she is speaking through her mind. This contradicts what happens at the start of the sequence and therefore challenges the audience and makes the viewer even more eager to know what will happen. Even though the opening sequence is around 5 minutes, the sequence is spread in about four different settings, the horror field and tent, the music theatre, on the street and a building. Therefore the thriller sequence is packed full of action, but it is yet minimal as it does not tell the storyline out, but gets the audience captured to the thriller.
The rain we see in the sequence when the main character enters a building (were her apartment is), restores the fact that it will not be all “happy”, as rain presents negativity and fear. The slow music that is played when the character is entering her apartment, builds suspense and fear for the viewer even though that nothing suspicious occurs or looks like it will occur. This lets the audience think to their self what may happen, and engage to the movie and even create assumptions of what may happen in the movie. The camera flow in the whole sequence is very smooth, and does not rush, but runs from one setting to another. The colours used in the sequence begin by being dark and dull, but when we are introduced the main character, its much brighter and the movie is seen in a different perspective.
This movie sequence is very different to many other movies, this is because it starts at disequilibrium in the first 1minuet 48 seconds, and then equilibrium, which make it very different to “typical” movies, this itself can engage the audience to the movie and make them watch on.
This a link of the thriller sequence that i analysed;
(analysis is based on the first 5 minutes of clip)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wVU8CRESp4
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